Determination of Cadmium(ii), Copper(ii), Mercury(ii), and Lead(ii) in Water Using Stochastic Sensors Based on Graphite and Diamond Paste Modified with 1H-Pyrrole-1-Hexanoic Acid

Abstract

Graphite/diamond pastes modified with 1H-pyrrole-1-hexanoic acid were used for the design of stochastic sensors. The proposed stochastic sensors were used to determine four heavy metals, copper(II), cadmium(II), mercury(II), and lead(II), in water samples. The sensitivities of the stochastic sensors were high for all four metal ions, and their limits of determination were sufficiently low to enable detection at very minute concentrations; in some cases, unreachable using standard methods of analysis. The recoveries of copper(II), cadmium(II), mercury(II), and lead(II) in water samples were higher than 93.00%, with relative standard deviation values lower than 1.00%. The sensors were used to simultaneously determine copper(II), cadmium(II), mercury(II), and lead(II) in water samples. The obtained results were in agreement with those obtained using standard analytical methods.

Keywords:

• Cadmium
• copper
• lead
• mercury
• pyrrole
• stochastic sensor
• water analysis

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Ioana-Georgiana Lazar for helping with some experiments while learning about stochastic sensors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research (UEFISCDI) [grant number PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2016-0181].